Here is a suggestion to EarMaster Aps: why don’t you make a (online) Highscores section of you website, a place for all user all around the world to compete. All the user would be uploading their results from EarMaster itself, so there would be no cheating, or there would be some other method to insure that the results are real, and there would be a title for which the student would compete:
It will be more interesting to see the results of the students and see the progression than competition. some are very bad and they might quit because of the competition
There is a very important pedagogical question: do you tell someone to quit if he’s not good enough, and does he get discouraged or encouraged after hearing a bad comment? My opinion is that if someone isn’t good enough, he should better quit than to struggle and fail all over again. There is something else you are good at, so do that. The competition should be there to encourage EarMaster student, and if you can’t finish 10 lessons with a required success, you ought to quit. I’m sorry, but those are the fact. For instance, I’m not good at painting and drawing, and I know I should better quit than not even be average.
There is another important thing: if you really want to succeed at something, your inner need for it is going to carry you towards the success, and I think that this competition is here only to induce you to progress. The more you wish something, the better you’ll get at it, and of course, you get only as good as much as you practice. I never went to a musical school, I didn’t know to read or write notes, but if wanted it so bad, and after a while I really got good at it. And it also has to do with the fact that I’m talented, if I wasn’t, I would never have made it.
I have a friend that he's good in music but his earring wasn't good at all. He can write, read, play but not able to distinguish a chord while is play from another one. He practices his earring for months and nothing happen for 6 months. After 6 months, the earring started to improve and was able to see the difference and be able to listen a song and play it after (for that it took many many months)
Indeed Waigin, I believe that your desire for something is crucial to achieve that. For instance, I started off with my desire to develop my ear (as I always start off with my desire in any other thing), and no matter how hard it is, or how good or bad I am at it, I am going to push myself to it until I have what I want. The most important question is whether or not your desire is strong enough to ensure you a constant progress and finally, getting your goal.
P.S. No hard feelings, I wonder why you always say "earring"? I am sure you mean "hearing"?
I wander if there is anyone who would already qualify for the title: The best EarMaster student of the world? Has anyone ever finished all the exercises in EarMaster? I haven’t yet, but I did finish the complete Interval identification exercise, couple of times so far, since I focused on this exercise previously, but now I plan to finish every single exercise there is.
In the interval Comparison, I'm at number 14. I finish too the interval identification too. I do the same level until I got all the answer, exept when I have to tap the rhythm, it's 90% and more
Lately, I've been concentrated to Interval Comparison exercise, and I'm so good at it that I usually do this exercise several times a day. This really helps, to do one exercise all over again, because now I recognize any given interval with incredible ease. But this way I’m not so good at other exercises, as I don’t work with them all too much. So, the best way to practice is to work with couple of exercises at the same time.